Two
weeks ago I found this signed print at Goodwill for 99 cents. It’s by New Orleans
artist Jack Wittenbrink who shows his work on the fence at Jackson Square in
the French Quarter.

The print, placed on top of cardboard cut from a box, and covered with clear packaging paper, had Jack Wittenbrink - Facebook written on the back. Here is Jack’s Facebook page. He’s a bit left...well…
alright, he’s radically left but he’s incredibly talented.

Jack’s
cemetery creation immediately brought to mind the Four Last Things of Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell - the four last stages of the soul in life and the afterlife. So I stood in the thrift store counting the crosses under the tree, then the skeletons under the ground to see if the numbers added up. (They don't.) After counting those, I then noticed ravens and cats in the three trees, designs on the coffins, tree roots, and ends of the crosses seen underground.

Happily I went to check-out and paid 99 cents for this great "find". I made several copies, laminated them, wrote Jack Wittenbrink - Facebook on the back and gave them to family and friends for Halloween cards/bookmarks.

How many priests really care about the souls in the Communion line? Think about it. St. Paul is very clear that those who take the Body of the Lord unworthily, take it unto their condemnation. Wow! Pope St. John Paul II and many others have observed the many who line up for Communion and the few who line up outside the confessional. Is it that we are so sinless? Hardly! But our culture has lost its sense of sin. And our scandalous Catholic politicians illustrate that in spades with their public enthusiasm and endorsement of the most heinous atrocities against life and the family.

Saturday, October 29, 2016

If anyone has not read Jean Raspail’s prophetic 1973 book, The Camp of the Saints, the entire book in English can be read HERE.

In 1972 while visiting one of his wife’s aunts in the South
of France Jean Raspail had an office with a view of the sea and one day
looking out over the sea he said to himself: And what if they came?

In an interview he further explained: "This they was not clearly defined at
first. Then I imagined that the Third World would rush into this blessed
country that is France. It's a surprising book. It took a long time to write
it, but it came to me on its own. I would stop writing in the evening and start
again in the morning without knowing where I was going. There is an inspiration
in this book that is alien to myself. I am not saying it is divine, but
strange.”

It isn’t so strange now since what Raspail saw in his vision half his
lifetime ago has come true with the immigration of millions of Muslims into
Europe and his beloved France. Born in 1925, he was 47 at the time of his
vision. God has let him live another 44 years–he is now 91–to (sadly) see
his prophetic vision come true.

In a 2015 interview Raspail had THIS to say about the invasion of Islam
into the EU and France.

And HERE is another interview (2013) with Raspail on Western culture's decline due to Islam.

Conclusion: A vote for Hillary means the camp of the saints venue for America.

Comedian Emo Phillips has a funny routine that ends this way, "Ambiguity...the devil's volleyball." And it seems that many of today's bishops and even the pope himself belong to the Emo Phillips school of doctrine. But I'll let someone else a lot smarter than I am discuss the ambiguities in Amoris Laetitia and the devastating impact on the faith.

Some (Not Entirely Random) Thoughts on “Amoris Laetitia”
Robert Royal pegs it and illustrates that not only are we in cultural meltdown, but doctrinal meltdown as well. I lament with Jesus, "When I return will I find any faith on the earth?" Oh, and now Pope Francis is setting to work on the liturgy. Can we expect a return of butterfly vestments?

I couldn't agree more with this blog post by my colleague and friend, Janet Baker, who writes at Restore-D.C. Catholicism. She pegs it when she describes the confused thinking of several pro-life activists who are busy doing grunt work for Hillary Clinton, one actively and one by omission.

It is not surprising to see muddled thinking among the young and Janet's character B is a generation behind me so he likely got terrible formation outside his family, absorbing the culture's demand for political correctness. And so, he won't refute erroneous thinking because the thinker is "sincere." It would be useful to remember that there are two causes of serious sin. We can sin out of malice or out of ignorance. To sin out of ignorance is certainly less grievous, but the consequences in many cases are no less disastrous. To be "sincerely" wrong is no virtue. And, we are reminded by the spiritual works of mercy that it is charitable "to admonish the sinner." And, yes, voting for Hillary is seriously sinful.

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. Aesop~ c. 620-564 B.C.

Well, that is certainly true, eh? Look at all the thieves and scoundrels ruling us for the past eight years as a start!

Aesop certainly was a man of common sense. Read about the life of this ancient Greek storyteller here. Have you read the fables to your children? They all have a moral that encourages virtue and sensibility which just goes to show that many pagans were more moral than many who profess to be Christians today. That's one of the reasons that St. Thomas Aquinas was an Aristotelian. He saw the truth in the pagan philosophers and their ordered thinking. Would that more people today could think as rationally as the pagan Greeks. did and recognize the "wolves in sheep's clothing."

Consider the many sayings and expressions that come down to us from Aesop: sour grapes, crying wolf, belling the cat, heaven helps those who help themselves, there's strength in unity, look before you leap, act in haste repent at leisure, one swallow doesn't make a summer, take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves, honesty is the best policy, wolves in sheep's clothing, it all depends on your point of view, don't count your chickens before they're hatched, set your sails with the wind, might makes right, fair weather friends, etc. Aesop was definitely a smart and clever man!

Thursday, October 27, 2016

I've been saying for several months that I thought Trump may be a Cyrus. And here's a priest who agrees. Listen to this sermon before you vote and then, please, act like a Catholic!

I've seen so much irrational blather in this election cycle I feel like I'm on the wrong side of the looking glass. And if Hillary's assault on the unborn, people of faith, those who defend the traditional family, home schoolers, etc. aren't enough to disqualify her, consider her selling influence to the highest bidder as Secretary of State, her lies about Benghazi, and her involvement in supplying sarin gas to the rebels in Syria so they could create a false flag event to justify the U.S. attacking Assad. That war has resulted in the death and displacement of millions of people! Where is the outrage?

"Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Matthew 28:19

Well, it's official. The pope tells us it's a sin to follow Christ's great commission. Addressing a group of visiting Lutherans standing next to a large statue of the excommunicated monk, the pope responded to a young girl's question about witnessing to her non-believing friends that “It is not licit that you convince them of your faith; proselytism is the strongest poison against the ecumenical path.” Hmm...

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Did you notice Kelly's attempt to manipulate Gingrich and her rude and dismissive talk about his "anger issues"? It was unprofessional and nothing but an ad hominem attack. It's what people without integrity do when they're losing an argument. But who was the angry one? Kelly was shooting serious daggers out of those baby blues (or browns -- They say she sometimes wears blue contacts.) Gingrich was exactly right when he said Kelly is fascinated by sex. She's on tape laughing and exchanging crude sex talk with Howard Stern -- about the size of her breasts, the size of her husband's penis and having sex during pregnancy. [Warning: the article contains an embedded video of the Stern interview that is crude and offensive and illustrates Kelly's trash talk.]

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Barack Obama has been using his pen and his phone for eight years working to transform our country into a one-world global community marked by perversity and "diversity." Hillary hopes to continue the demolition with immigration as the beachhead promising a range of goodies to by votes, goodies that we cannot afford and cannot sustain. How many states now have areas infiltrated by Muslim "refugees" demanding recognition of their religion in the schools and calling for Sharia Law?

Monday, October 24, 2016

Put that child down, you crude devil.
Send in a holy fireman to the rescue!

Bob Marshall is a pro-life Catholic, an astute politician, and a personal friend. He's fought for the little ones in the womb his entire life, even before he entered politics. I hope those Catholics who plan to sit out the election will change their minds for the sake of our future. We need firefighters not critics with molotov cocktails.

I understand the reluctance of some conservatives to vote for Trump. But in the practical world, would we impose a “purity” test on a fireman before he saves our home or a police officer before he saves a life? NO!

Our country is on fire! It is being systematically destroyed by an atheistic liberalism that is imposing every diabolical idea in the imagination of man, stirred up by the deceiver and implemented by a corrupt woman who has made a career of killing babies, advancing gender insanity, and enriching herself. While people hyperventilate over Trump's crude talk, Hillary's immoral assault on a little 12-year-old raped by a client she knew was guilty is ignored. This is standing for women?

Against the spirit of liberty and
democracy, Hillary Clinton seeks to be a little queen, who says, "I am, and there is none else besides
me." (Isaiah 47:8) However, she is failing to realize that she is going up
against someone who far exceeds her abilities, and who is far more beloved among
the American people.

Americans should encourage themselves
in knowing that their support for Donald Trump places them on the winning team.
The facts speak for themselves. Trump has twice the amount of followers on
Facebook as Hillary, with Trump having received 10,174,358 likes, compared to
Hillary's 5,385,959 likes. Trump has 10.7 million followers on Twitter, compared
to 6.1 million followers for Hillary. According to the Washington Examiner, 41
percent of Hillary's twitter followers are not even real people. Trump averages
30,000 viewers per live stream, while Clinton averages 500 viewers per live
stream. On Reddit Trump has 197,696 subscribers, while Hillary has only 24,429
subscribers. We can understand now why Hillary has been paying people to support
her online, as was revealed by the DNC's leaked emails from Wikileaks.

Sunday, October 23, 2016

You've seen the rigged election videos from Project Veritas. You've heard CNN imply they are edited and misleading. Check the facts in the video below showing that none of the bragging film footage from DNC operatives is "just talk." You can see them for yourselves in email discussions and on camera disrupting Trump events. You can see the payment documents outlining the money paid out and the ad for actors experienced in fighting. You can see the phone records, and the White House visit lists showing these folks actually have significant contact with the principles.

Do you think that European cities are having MuslimFests in
France, Germany, Sweden, Belgium? Maybe England?

Canada is
indoctrinating Canadians into Islam to the point where Toronto Islamist, Taha Ghayyer, said “It is certainly possible to implement Sharia Law in North American
society.”But then it would not be a North American society OF North America, even though it
was IN North America. It would be an Islamicsociety IN North America carrying out Islam's primary goal to turn the entire globe and all its people of every race and religion into Muslims under Sharia law and Islam's god, Allah. (And all food would be Halal, that is sacrificed to Allah. There would be no liquor, beer, pork, barbecue ribs, bacon, pork chops and so on down the line unless it was in accordance with Islamic culture, Sharia law, Muhammad and Allah.)

Saturday, October 22, 2016

If Hillary wins look at what's coming to Washington, D.C.; NYC; Miami, FL; and other major cities. It's the battle of Lepanto all over again with the Muslims invading former Christian countries with the goal of a universal caliphate. And, sadly, the Catholic Church is enabling the invasion bought by government money to resettle the "refugees" who are mostly young men of military age.

Friday, October 21, 2016

My granddaughter, Mia, was confirmed in May and recently wrote about her experience. As I read her essay, I felt a surge of hope for the future. I know God is pleased with young Catholics like Mia who are not afraid to publicly profess her faith and share it with others. At fourteen she is an aide to the second grade CCD teacher in her parish. Every week she shares about a saint offering heroes to her young charges. We were chatting this morning about various ways to bring alive her saint stories in ways the children will remember. Please pray for Mia and all of the children of the Church who represent her future. While the world is dark indeed there are many candles lighting up the darkness.

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Keep in mind, folks, as you watch the videos below, that these strategies are exactly the kind of mob actions fomented by the Communists and Alinskyite socialists. Note in the second CNN video that the thugs organizing the actions are now claiming it was all just talk, but there are individuals in the videos who were the actual agitators.

O'Keefe is exposing the underbelly of the beast. The media is mostly ignoring it, but as the videos continue to be released that will be more and more difficult.

Let's make all of this go viral. Watch and share these videos. Expose the corrupt Democrat machine for what it is -- a bunch of thugs who will go to any extreme to accomplish their goals including rigging elections by registering the dead and busing "voters" from one polling place to another to vote multiple times.

Catholic homeschooling families:
monasteries against the new dark ages

I've been catching up on my Wanderer reading since I got back from our Canadian trip and this morning I read an excellent article, Bouleversement by Deacon James H. Toner from the July 21st edition. (I couldn't find it online, but you can buy a copy at The Wanderer website. I'm saving mine; it's that good.)

The word bouleversement means:

turmoil and convulsion; it points to an inversion of things, especially a violent one; but it also suggests confusion and convulsion; it suggests a forceful overthrow of what we know.

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

The entire universe heard and saw live on TV two-faced Hillary's hypocritical disconnect on abortion and choice. (It's only a choice for some, but not for others.)

During tonight’s 3rd Presidential Debate while
discussing Supreme Court Justices who might overturn Roe vs Wade, Hillary was
adamant that the “government has no place in a woman’s decision on abortion. It’s
a very intimate decision and the government has no place in it.”

Yet Hillary wants that same government to continue its HHS Mandate forcing Americans to violate their conscience by providing abortions to
those women whose right it apparently is not to have the government not
allowing them to kill their child.

In other words, Hillary, a prime example of a two-faced
hypocrite, double deals with the rights of the American people to make their
own decision on abortion. She is resolute and unyielding when it comes to women
and choice, but the Catholic Church, the Little Sisters of the Poor, Priests for
Life, Catholic colleges and universities, Catholic employees and anyone else
opposed to dismemberment of a baby in the womb, must be forced to violate their
conscience and agree to the mortal sin of abortion or else be jailed, sued or
fined enormous sums of money.Possibly this blood money is Hillary’s secret plan to fill the
government’s bleeding empty coffers?

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

The stories exposing the illegal activities of the DNC and Clinton campaign have been spiked by the mainstream media. So that means we, as the alternative media, need to shine the spotlight on these political crooks who are using Alinsky and Communist tactics to rig the election.

If you want to see Part I before watching the next video, go here. Let's make these videos go viral!

Monday, October 17, 2016

Chicago protests canceling Trump rally were manipulated
by dark operatives of the DNC and they brag about it!

The Democratic National Committee is a corrupt group pulling the strings on "dark operatives" who arrange for violence and dirty tricks against their political enemies.

Here's a brief glimpse of the shocking slime on the video:

Scott Foval: Admits making sure "there is a double blind between the actual campaign and the actual DNC and what we're doing. There's a double blind there. So they can plausibly deny that they knew anything about it."

Review the disturbing facts about Scalia's death. Does this new piece of the puzzle point to an assassination about to happen?

Scalia certainly wasn't in the best of health, but everything surrounding his death was strange, and the way it was handled certainly gives rise to questions. If Podesta and Elmendorf weren't talking about assassinating Scalia who exactly was about to be the target for "wet works?"

Sunday, October 16, 2016

Fewer than 100 years ago, the masonic Mexican government closed all the Catholic churches and actively persecuted the faithul which resulted in the Cristero rebellion. The Cristeros fought the persecution under the banner of Christ the King.

Among the heroes of the time was Fr. Miguel Pro who was captured and executed for doing nothing more than bringing the Mass to the underground Church. He ended his life before a firing squad with arms stretched out in the cruciform position exclaiming, "Viva Cristo Rey!" Long live Christ the King.

Today the pope canonized one of the youngest Cristero martyrs, Jose Sanchez del Rio, only thirteen-years-old when he joined the Cristeros and only fifteen when he gave his life for Christ after cruel torture. Jose's two older brothers left to fight with the Cristeros, and the youngster begged his mother to let him go as well. She refused saying he was too young, but finally relented after he told her, “Mamá, it has never been easier to earn Heaven as now.” He expected to die fighting for restoration of the Catholic faith in Mexico.

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Remember Anita Hill's attempt to pull the lever on Clarence Thomas' high tech lynching? Ted Kennedy was sure he could "bork" Thomas with lies and dirty dealing, but he failed when Thomas hit back hard.

As I watch all this crap coming out now about Trump's ostensible groping and the the faux horror from people like Michele Obama who claims it has "shaken me to the core" I'm convinced this is just the latest dirty dealing from a party built on lies and corruption.

Trump is certainly no choir boy, but I find some of these allegations hard, no impossible,

"There needs to be a
Catholic Spring, in which Catholics themselves demand the end of a Middle-Ages
dictatorship and the beginning of a little democracy and respect for gender
equality in the Catholic Church," Sandy Newman, president and founder of Voices for Progress, writes to
Podesta in an email titled "Opening for a Catholic Spring?"

The recent Wikileaks revelation of the Democratic Party’s efforts to harness the power of Catholic progressives so as to force the Church to allow her teachings to “evolve” shows a deep disregard for a basic truth, stated so clearly in Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever”.

Thursday, October 13, 2016

The Wikileaks dump continues to expose what we all know about the Democrats. They are anti-Catholic and anti-Christian to the core. The recently released emails mocking Catholics, the attack on the Little Sisters of the Poor trying to force them to cover abortion and contraception in their employees' health insurance package, disparaging remarks about religious people clinging to their bibles and their guns, Hillary Clinton's statement that religious beliefs must be changed to conform to her radical abortion agenda, and Tim Kaine's insistence that the Church will "evolve" to accept same sex "marriage" -- all show exactly what Democrats, including Catholic Democrats, think of those "bad" Catholics who actually accept and defend Church teaching.

Brian Clowes, Director of Research and Training at Human Life International, is urging voters to support Donald Trump. The impact to the babies in the womb if Hillary takes office is devastating, Clowes says. His reasoning should give every pro-lifer considering a third party vote or sitting out the election serious pause. Let me quote from the article which was published in The Wanderer on September 15th:

If Clinton is elected "Millions more babies will pay the ultimate price. The Obama administration has backed up the abortion industry at every turn, but President Hillary Clinton will go much further. Pro-abortion leaders universally acknowledge that the three highest priorities of Clinton's presidency will be abortion, more abortion, and even more abortion.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Wikileaks is doing us all a favor by exposing exactly what liberals think of us. Their latest email dump includes an email from Bill Ivy to Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta showing exactly how these elitists work.

Who is Ivy you ask? A Clinton operative who was appointed Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts during Bill Clinton’s second term. In his biography, Ivy is described as a "trustee of the Center for American Progress, and was a Team Leader in the Barack Obama presidential transition.” CAP is a far left political think tank established in 2003 to promote the progressive agenda and fuel the campaigns of liberals like Barack Obama and the Clintons. According to Source Watch, "individual [CAP] donors include George Soros, Peter Lewis, Steve Bing, and Herbert M. Sandler. The Center receives undisclosed sums from corporate donors" as well including WalMart.

The
leftist elite media and their darling in a pants suit, Hillary, will do
anything to detour Donald Trump’s campaign into a ditch. But so far all the
dirt they have managed to dig up out of the past on Trump is an 11 year-old
video of locker room mantalk. They pretend that they’re aghast at his use of the “P”
word and talking about sex while married. Wow. I am shocked. The media fake prudes. ("P"s !?)

America
had better not hear one movie star say a single word about Trump’s locker room
talk after years of filth spewing out of Hollywood like lava running over the
nation covering it with pornography, and Hollywood stars don’t merely talk
about adultery, they DO it. Their movies and TV shows are filled with obscene smut,
immorality, nude sex on the screen, homosexuality and transgenderism (Cher and
also Warren Beatty are proud of their transgender daughters who now
think they’re men, even though they certainly don't have man "P"s but still retain their original “P”s – the very ones
referred to in today’s media blitz on Melania’s pink blouse with the “P” bow in
support of her husband.)

Donald Trump is sure no choir boy. I deplore his vulgar and crass statements. He was old enough a decade ago to know better. But, please, are his statements worse than Bill Clinton's actions? Talking about sex is inexcusable, but actually raping and molesting women gets a pass? I am so sick of the hypocrisy of the media and their double standards. Do we really want to give Bill access to the interns again?

Sunday, October 9, 2016

Islam is evil. Europe is dying because they are overrun. Sweden and other European nations have an increasing numbers of "no-go zones" (or "semi-autonomous sectors") where police leave the non-Islamic citizens, especially women, at the mercy of Islamic gang violence. Can you imagine your 11-year-old daughter being kidnapped by an Islamic child-stealing ring and the police refusing to do a thing about it? That's what is happening in Europe and we are likely to see it here as the Muslim invasion continues aided and abetted by the Catholic bishops who get millions from the government for "resettling refugees." See more here

“Your soul will be in grave danger” if you vote for a candidate and party that are committed to expanding abortion on demand, “especially if you present yourself for Holy Communion after casting such a vote with the full knowledge of what you’re doing,” the rector of the Cathedral of Sts. Simon and Jude said in a homily skewering pro-abortion arguments and informing Catholics of their duty to vote pro-life....

Saturday, October 8, 2016

two
wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the desert to her
place

– Apocalypse 12:14

“El Panecillo - Bread Loaf Hill - emerges with
the aluminum statue of the Virgin of Quito in all of its 134 1/2 feet, high from
the south side of Quito Colonial. The hill itself rises at 9,900 feet or 3,016
meters above sea level.

“In 1976 this monument emerged with a replica of
the sculpture created of 7,000 pieces of aluminum, the largest of its kind in
the world.

“The only figure in the world of the Virgin with
wings...she comes to us from the 18th
century inspired by the description of her in the Book of the Apocalypse.

“Shungoloma
is the original name given in Quichua, which means "hill of the
heart." How fitting that the Spanish claimed it for the Immaculate Heart
of Mary!

“Other names have been attached to her, but the
Virgin of Quito rings the most common. Everyone
in Quito knows that it replicates the original of Bernardo Legarda. That
explains why she's also known as the Legarda Virgin.”

Before my family and I went in Ecuador this past
June I didn’t understand why a statue of the Virgin Mary would have wings. People
don’t turn into angels and get wings once in heaven, so naturally I went to the
Internet to try to figure out who created the original 18th century statue
and why she has wings. Once I found the answer I was astounded that there
aren’t more statues of Our Mother with wings because she (with wings) is
incredibly beautiful.

Friday, October 7, 2016

Several
years ago, in one of the dozens of hurricanes here in Florida that I’ve lived
through (Thank you, Lord), my family and I were seized with hysterical laughter while
watching a TV weatherman dressed in bright yellow raingear and boots, standing
ankle deep in water (at one point he removed his boots to demonstrate how deep
the water was) and clinging to a street sign while shouting into his microphone
telling people it was dangerous to be outside in a hurricane and to stay indoors.

Because of
high winds it was raining sideways, water had flooded streets and all normal
people were already inside. Normal people
in hurricane prone states know with
high wind velocity and the number of tin roofs and electric wires, that a piece
of tin flying through the air can slice a man in half and live wires electrocute
people, therefore it’s not wise to stand outside in roaring wind, barefoot in
water. Nevertheless, the media, thinking that people are dismally uninformed,
persist in reporting on dangerous weather while standing there in it with flying
debris threatening their lives merely to warn other people–who would never do
that in the first place–how dangerous it is and not to do that.

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Do you see the eye of Sauron searching for the
ring of power to control the world ?

I found this short perspective from Fr. Tom Collins on target and an invitation for further reflection. In fact, after reading the scripture passage about the time of lawlessness and the coming "son of perdition" I want to reflect on how our time is like that described by St. Paul. It is a sobering message, a warning, in fact, for those who like having their ears tickled and prefer perverse ideas to the truth. Here is a portion of the scripture mentioned by Fr. Tom:

"This lawless one will appear as part of the workings of Satan, accompanied by all the power and signs and wonders at the disposal of falsehood --- by every seduction the wicked can devise for those destined to ruin because they have not opened their hearts to the truth in order to be saved. Therefore God is sending upon them a perverse spirit which leads them to give credence to falsehood, so that all who have not believed the truth but have delighted in evildoing will be condemned."

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Join
the Deplorables! This is a great video. People all over the world have HAD IT
with globalism and radical Islamization and it is Donald Trump who has raised a
global spirit of “ENOUGH! That’s it! No more!”

He seems to have given people
the courage to stand up against the stupidity of radical liberal leftists. So
watch for 3 minutes and get your weary hearts lifted into the realm of hope.

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Sometimes
thrift stores are a source of valuable information. Not long ago I found a
religion text book for the Junior year of high school copyrighted in 1945 by
Mentzer, Bush & Company in Chicago. It’s called The Ark and the Dove…as in “the Dove guides the Ark through the
ages.”

Below is the entire
excerpt on Islam (pp 290-292), which in 1945 was called Mohammedanism. There
was no smarmy political correctness in Catholic religion classes in 1945.

Mohammedanism Threatens the Church

Still farther to the East, gigantic
forces were gathering for another and a prolonged assault on Christ’s Church.
In the year 610 a man named Mohammed began preaching in Mecca, a city in
Arabia. He claimed he was called to preach by the angel Gabriel. He opposed
polytheism and taught a strange mixture of paganism, Judaism, and Christianity.
In 622 he was forced to flee from Mecca to Medina. This flight is known as the Hegira.

I love lighthouses. We saw a lot of them on our trip to Canada: off the coast of Maine, at the Bay of Fundy, on Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Whenever I see a lighthouse I'm reminded that we are called to be lights to the world. Some day I want to go make a tour of the lighthouses in Wisconsin on Lakes Michigan and Superior. I read somewhere that they have more lighthouses than anywhere else. I think of the angels and saints as lighthouses. Maybe I will never be a lighthouse, but perhaps I can be a candle or a flashlight. Remember that darkness isn't something; it's the absence of light, a negative that can be driven off by simply lighting a match.

Think how bright the world would be if each of us took seriously Christ's admonition to be lights to the world. Every time we see a lighthouse let it remind us to be lights to the world and then shine, shine, shine!

Sunday, October 2, 2016

In today's Gospel the apostles ask Jesus to increase their faith. That is surely something we need today and that thought was affirmed by an article written by a priest of my diocese:

It’s extremely hard to remain a Christian, at least publically, when the society you live in treats you like an alien.

But if remaining a Christian is a daunting challenge, even more daunting is the duty of every Christian to bring his or her faith into the public arena, to evangelize not only other people, but the culture itself. In this regard, Vatican II had this to say: “Since they have an active role to play in the whole life of the Church, laymen are not only bound to penetrate the world with a Christian spirit, but are also called to be witnesses to Christ in all things in the midst of human society.” (Gs 43) Read more...

The other night we were sitting around a fire with some camping neighbors at St. Andrews on the bay (of Fundy) in New Brunswick. Overhead the moonless sky allowed a dazzling display of stars and the Milky Way. Breathtaking! On our drive through Maine the trees were changing from green to brilliant hues of gold, scarlet, and orange. We would go from a stretch of evergreens with only an occasional dash of color, follow a curve in the road to be met by a hillside of deciduous cousins dressed in fall finery. The sun was shining and the bright blue Mary sky provided the perfect background to set off their beauty.

Saturday, October 1, 2016

As is
immediately evident, our world is absorbed by political and secular concerns which seek as an ultimate goal a
human utopia on this earth, failing to recognize that this life is merely a
way-station to eternal life and supernatural happiness in the next. This warped
perspective ignores the character of God and the nature of ultimate reality
professed by the Roman Catholic Church. It gives scant recognition to the
divine or spiritual life. Implicit is a lost vision of Christ, extraordinary
naïveté, and a complete lack of logic. A true Catholic perspective comprehends
that our current natural, physical and material existence is only a part of
reality, and a minor part at that. The essence of reality lies in the supernatural
realm. As our Roman Catholic Church constantly emphasizes, we are on earth to
“know, love and serve God in this world so that we may be happy with Him
forever in heaven”. We are human beings destined for eternal life.

This loss of the essence of Christianity,
namely its supernatural perspective, by Modernist (liberal) Christians was
clearly identified 90 years ago by the famous philosopher, George Santayana of Harvard University,
in his book Winds of Doctrine which made a trenchant critique of the Modernism
of his day. It applies even more aptly to Modernist Catholics today. He wrote:

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Comments are moderated. Please be respectful. Argument (in the classical sense) is welcome, however crude, or obscene remarks will not be posted. I am more lenient with ad hominem attacks directed at me (no name-calling) since so many people these days don't seem to know how to engage in a discussion without them. No anti-Catholic comments will be posted. If you are a bigot, go somewhere else.